View From The Dolan: A Mem-orable Evening For Reading

Ben’s take on Tuesday’s thoroughly enjoyable 2-0 win at Bristol Rovers’ Memorial Stadium.

I was actually supposed to go to this game but, due to what I’d call “life”, I didn’t. To be fair to me, the ticket was in the home end as I’d faffed around for too long as to whether to go. Moral of the story: don’t overthink things. You can have that piece of advice for free.

Interestingly (or not if you don’t like talking about ticket prices), it only cost me £15 plus a pound for the privilege of booking. I then had to pay £10 for Royals TV so any “value for dollar” thoughts evaporated from my mind like a dropped ice cream in July as I calculated I’d spent £26 for the whole thing and I hadn’t even left the house. Modern rip-off Britain for you.

I’d picked up a multipack of Smiths’s crisps (remember them!) from a nationwide budget household essentials retailer earlier in the week (Monday). They remind of very local country pubs that you tend to visit when you holiday in the West Country - you don’t see them often. Long story short, I vowed not to eat any while watching the game.

Well, after Mr Smith himself put us ahead in under 20 minutes, I rushed to grab his namesake’s snack, a Spanish lager and a bottle of Welsh water and I settled down with a large grin on my chops. What a start! My Bristol-living friend (who is also a massive Reading fan) was there in the home end and he sent me the voice note of our fans cheering the goal. It was liquid noise.

We settled well into the game and another sold-out away end was in fine voice. Honestly, as a collective, our fans are criminally underrated in terms of the noise, atmosphere and overall attitude and I hope it continues to grow over time.

We were being inventive, relentless and generally very naughty in attack and I loved it. It was one of the most enjoyable 20 minutes I’ve had watching us this season and I felt utterly convinced that we’d score the next goal. I could hear boos from the Gas fans and I laughed heartily into my lager.

Just before the break, Lewis ‘David Beckham’ Wing converted a direct free-kick past the net tender to put us 2-0 up. Wow. What a peach of a strike. We really were as solid as a thick Easter egg in that first half and it was delicious to see (the performance, not the egg).

As the light dimmed and the second half commenced, I took a moment to marvel at the stadium and that main stand. We’ve had a season of visiting fairly decent, interesting grounds and, despite not being there, this one looked like it ranked high on that list. Rovers came out of the traps fairly swiftly within the first few minutes of the second period and Joel Pereira was as busy as he’d been all game thus far.

I had to step away for a bit as the cat got herself into the rabbit’s cage. Context: we have a house rabbit and, during the day when we are in the house, he just skips around the kitchen with his cage left open for him. It is not a place for cats, but yet there I was trying to get her out while he looked in what I imagine was 50% confusion and 50% disgust.

Things were getting a little scrappy (the game, not my animals), but Tyler Bindon pulled off some incredible defending to convince me that he truly is as reliable as a Nokia phone. Pereira was the same: a real beast in goal who defended resolutely and kept the score to 0 admirably. Both teams huffed and puffed towards the end of the half, but really, once the second goal went in, there was only going to be one winner.

A handsome win then to all but secure safety in this league for another season. And after an incredibly turbulent and traumatic year, it’s the perfect way for us to enjoy the last few games and send the lads off into a summer of hopeful change behind the scenes.

Until next time.